NATO prepared to hold contacts with Russia on defense issues, says official

ANTALYA, May 13. /TASS/. Dialogue between NATO and Russia is moving ahead with much difficulty, Carmen Romero, NATO’s deputy press secretary told TASS on Wednesday on the sidelines of a ministerial conference of the North-Atlantic pact in the Turkish city of Belek. At the moment, cooperation with Russia was limited to political dialogue only, as the foreign ministers of the member-states had decided to suspend practical cooperation but NATO was keeping lines for political communications open, she said. NATO was also prepared to conduct dialogue between the military if this might help prevent possible misunderstandings, Romero said. She recalled in this connection that Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to NATO in February but this dialogue was not smooth, since both sides had little to say to each other at the peak of the crisis. Romero said NATO did not see the chances for a return to the previous type of relationship shortly, since the Minsk accords on peace settlement in eastern Ukraine were to be fulfilled. In connection with the latter point, she claimed Russia had not gotten down to fulfilling them yet. Read more